i really like my new life as of the past 6 months but
now that i am self-employed, every minute I have that I am not working is time I could be spending either working or generating business for new projects. I spend most of my time in the house online emailing people back and forth and lest I need to show a house, meet someone at the Museum or go out for dinner or a party with friends or even hit up the grocery store, sometimes I can stay in my pjs until 3pm. I have been trying to be more pro-active about time management and spending the evenings of the last week of January and the first week of February watching all of season 1 for lost, playing halo and starting season 2 has not helped my case one bit. I have been out of the 9-5 scene since August 1st and in that time I have made almost $3850 in contract work for the Museum with more yet to be invoiced, plus I had a $4,000 real estate sale and I am really really close to helping my latest set of buyers pick a house (we have been out more than 4 times and seen just about every foreclosure north-central phoenix has to offer, but they keep wanting to see more and more.

So if I add that income together (mind you it is untaxed, but that's ok as long as I can make enough deductions to not show a profit) that means that in 6 months I have generated $7850 worth of income. My annual salary at SMoCA was right around or just under $30,000....so I am at less than half of what I was making there. When I left to start this new business I really thought time would not be an issue because there would be oodles of it, but with self-directed marketing and self-directed projects must come discipline and motivation as well as perseverance. Then you have life, social gatherings, boyfriend stuff, household stuff and everything in between until you find yourself in the very situation I am in now. It is almost 7am...I have been up all night. I took some sleep aid at 11pm, but here I am - STILL - worried that if I go to bed I won't finish enough work nor will I be able to get up at my desired 10 am to do more buyer showings between 11 and 1. I want to order business cards, set up email marketing campaigns, send out Just Sold cards, get turbo tax working, implement streaming audio on a webpage (as a test for the latest smoca project I have been hired to do - which is consequently due friday.)

I have a planner, a web calendar and I am pretty choosy about social events too so I can maximize my work time but there keeps seeming to be a deadline on the horizon that supersedes that which came before it.

Oh and I thought I would be so smart and buy 3 pints of ice cream which I thought would last at least 2 weeks, but between all this, I've already eaten 1/3 of my supply. Is there any winning?

at least there is early valentines day to look forward to this weekend with ravyn440 in Las Vegas

and I can honestly say that in spite of everything on my plate I have been pretty happy for the past 5 days...lots of things are coming together and I feel stronger and more confident. i just need to lose the illusion that I have freetime like a person who had a 40/hour per week job...everything i do, everyone i meet and everywhere i go can be some how related to my business should i decide to play it that way

in other news i am about to fight progressive for paying out a claim i was documented as saying i wanted to handle privately, my rates went up $330 for the next six months without my authorization to even open the claim, it"s because it is being considered an at fault accident on my part - well there is no police report proving that and my my car isn't even fixed. I can either fight and see if i i can get it reversed or join them, take the $1000 deductible reopen the claim and try and get my car fixed too and risk my rates going up again in 6 months. funny how no one on their end can tell me what would/will happen for sure if i do that. i can also do nothing, pay the increased premiums and still get my car fixed out of pocket. the whole thing happened in vegas in november when a cab and i side swiped each other. my credit score has also dropped almost 100 points since september and i'd really like to work on fixing that too.

What's weird is that like i said i am not unhappy, my home life is going great, the boy and i are seemingly getting along and just as in love as we ever were if not more even after almost 5 years of being together and although I have a ton of shit to take care of i think it is all going to be okay. i just need to learn to sleep between 12am and 8am...that shouldn't be too hard right? morning people do get more done and they don't slog through the day feeling behind all the time, but whenever i attempt to reverse my schedule i either get sick or end up so overtired i can barely function

I guess I will attempt a two hour nap even though that never works but in my current state i am useless. wish me luck for my 10am wake up call!